T
o
By lUREKA lURK
IIlchlqen Citizen
the 1988 jam ''Me, Myself and
n"While Poe explored the idea
of his color, Tip said, flat out,
"Black is Blac "
"Now, from the lip of virtu­
ally every spokesman and the
pages of every publication
there was suddenly not only a
bold new rhetoric - there was
a 'New Negro' .. The NEW NE­
GRO, unlike the old time Ne­
gro 'does not fear the face of
day,' proclaimed the Kansas
City Call."
AND ,JU Tasthe
Zulu Nation too a big chun
out of the rap industry, A Tribe
Called Quest came on the
scene with "Left My Wallet In
El Segundo." A cute little tune,
it lets the hip-hop audience get
a feel for their flavor: fun, mad
beats and a chock full 0' origi­
nallyiics.
It was apparent that the
members of the Zulu Nation
had two things in common,
their tribal flavor and their
ability to stray away from the
monotony of subject matter al­
ready out.
While Rob Base and D.J.
EazyRoc's"ltTakes Two".wf!S
- WJen Hsr/em Was In Vogue­
by David Levering Lewl
My grandmother winces
when she hears the word. I
imagine that every tragedy
that occurred during her time
because of her skin color comes
to her mind and she's not going
to remember it all willingly. So
at chip in the gap of
generations.
Perhaps Ii tening to tracks like
" 8 Million tories" will let the older
generation in on the
mind of its younger people.
My boys and my sisters let Nation, consisting of De La
it roll off of their tongue freely Soul, The Jungle Brothers, A
because its a term of endear- Tribe Called Quest, Black
ment. I have never met some- Sheep Gust unheard of young-'
one older than late twenties ins back then), Queen Latifah,
who could understand why Monie Love and Prinse Paul,
brothers (and some sisters) managed to link hiphoppers
use "nigg-" as an affectionate with a funky, jazzy flavor not
affiliation. prevelent in mainstream rap.
. Maybe a Tribe Called Quest The Zulu nation is family
could shed some light .on the with rap great Afrikka Bam­
whole concept of the transfor- baata sitting at the head of the
mation of a word that means table. And. none of the siblings
different things to different have managed to falter from
ages, classes, and most defi- Bambaata's expectations, cer-
nately races. tainly not Tribe.
There are four of them al- The group gained much de-
though Jarobi, the spiritual served new respect with their
member of the group, doesn't second release in 1991, the
get as many prope as the rest hailed work of art "The UJw
End Theory".
of them. .
Nol:xx:ly ever hears his wis- Few albums deserved the
dom except for his boys. titleof''NotHavingTo Use The
Q-Tip 'may be the one that FastforwardButton Once" and
f ""'he Low End Theory" was de-
basks most in the limelight 0 J. ,
hip-hop stardom, whatever . finately one of them. .
that is. Who could forget Tip's Group member Phife was
quic and to the point advice given the unspoken award of
to De La Soul's Posdnous on "Most Improved Lyricist" by
his comrades and deservedly
80. "Butter", though not com­
mercially a hit, was a street
hit. Brothers bounced to
Phife's narrative account of
dealing with fake women. It
was the transformation of a
dog into an observant single
Blackman.
THE OBVIOUS HIT
were those characteristic of
Tribe, hard beats and crazy
tracks, "Check The Rhime",
"Scenerio'' (an energy-pump­
ingcollaboration with Leaders
Of the New School), and "Bug­
gin' Out". But in all actuality,
their fellow rap artists knew
"The UJw End Theory" was g0-
ing to give Tribe a lock on being
legit.
-And 80 now they are back
with their third, long awaited
e "idnight Maraud-
ers". And they are on a mis­
sion. It was virtually
impossible to get advance cop­
ies. The word ''bootleg'' leaves
more than a bad taste in
Tribe's mouth, it's downright'
unforgivable. The group would
rather sacrifice publicity
strategies than have a $8 ren­
dition on the street before the
first CD could be pressed.
But Tribe did have a gold­
mine to guard. ''Midnight Mar
rauders" stays true to their
flavor and is a continuation of
the path they layed down in
"The UJw End Theory".
''Midnight Marauders" un­
shamefully uses the word
"nigg-" throughout its pro­
gram.
"We've taken a word that
the white man put on us in a
derogatory sense and put love
in it, But yet and still he can't
use it. I know it stems from a
bad background, but I'm just
repreeentingthestreet.AlI the
kids in the street know where
that shit come from. Instead of
talking at us, talk to us," Q-Tip
sa . Tip, Phife, Jarobi, and
Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the
DJ/Producer of the group, may
just represent the neo-nigs of
the 9�. Tip still resides at
home with his mother. Phife
chills in the basement of his
grandmother's home. Ali Sha­
heed makes his home in New
Jersey but he still carries the
Brooklyn-esque look with him.
He is the actual leader of
Tribe, taking the role of the
father figu residing over the
youngsters.
"BY ALBU THREE, A
Tribe Called Quest finds that
keeping the family close to
heart helps to keep their music
close to the street," hip-hop
. journalist Kier na May
Dawsey writes.
It is evident that Tribe has
matured, along with a large
number of the Zulu Nation. De
La Soul's "Buhloonz State Of
Mind" includes signs of frus­
tration and unhappin with
record i nd ustry execu ti ves.
Queen Latifah's new release
"U.N.I. T. Y. (Who You Collin' a
Bitch or a Hoel)" is a pro t
,0-
o
o
against the negative treat­
ment of women. And Tribe has
taken the taboo word "nigg-"
and confronts its meaning in
the Black community. Some­
times art doesn't necessarily
uplift the race, it just reflects
what's going on.
Perhaps listening to tracks
like "8 Million Stories" will let
the older generation in on the
mind of its younger people.
Without sugarcoating, Phife
lays down just about all the
problems that could hit a
in the streets that would make
young people want to use
"nigg-" as a term of endear­
ment.
"The upper Black people,
the snooty Black people, the
people who think they're too
Black to be Black to Black pe0-
ple, like to down us because we
say the word. Thesong is just
explaining why we use the
word," Tips says. Perhaps its a
shout for Black people to deal
wi th the meaning instead of
pu hing it under the carpet.
through a weeding-out period.
We're about to get rid of all of
the wackness and all of that,"
Shah says.
And the concrete exam pie of
their maturity occurred dur­
ing Tribe's feud with members
of the new jack swing group
Wreckx- -Effect. After a
highly publicized rift, the two
groups went to the Zulu Na­
tion and the ation ofIslam to
kill the hostility and avoid los­
ing some more Black lives in a '
fit of displaced anger. "Mid­
night Marauders", named for
the group's attempt to steal
their listeners' ears at the hip­
hop hour, is evidence that
Tribe's growth is only comple­
menting their style. While
they may come off as a little too
intellectual in their ideas,
their fl avor carri their m -
sage Vi ry easily.
Tri i one exam ple of the
neo-nig, without trying to get
tied down to tereotypee and
such. The fact that they want
to tart addr ing the i e.e
lik "nigg-", r ord industry
X! ti , bootleggers, wack
M s, and xuality (Tip says
th ultima eff tive come on
line in "E I tric Relaxation":
"If I w working at 'the club
you would no p y.") is exam­
ple enough of the char ac­
teri tic of the n nig. Tired
and f up wi th th dir tion
of . i ty, the neo-nig"d not
f ar th face of day" but tri
to do mething a ut it.
W;'
that th
ad
rd (ni a
man put on u in
n and put lov
t and till
a I t e it.
brother. From getting his car
stolen to being busted for
drugs that don't even belong to
him, Phife lays it all down. Ar­
t' ically, Phife has 't grown
too much ince "The UJw End
Theory". While gettin� p�J?S
for improvement, Phife still
n to learn to work on the
content of his lyrics. Tribe had
definitely taken another step
to matur tion by trying to con­
textualize what's really going
I HA 0 ex-
panded th ir view of the rap
industry i If, On "Check The
Rhime", Tip flowed, "Industry
num r 4,0 O. ord com­
pany pl ar hady. So kids
watch your back 'cau I think
h y moke cr ck. I don't
doubt it, k at how they act."
This im around, Ali ha­
h philosophizes on the turn
that r p music is making.
"Right now, I think we're going